


Broken Promises

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Seiken Densetsu 3 | Secret of Mana 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-24
Updated: 2008-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1627391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      Hi! You've seen my name before. Someone pointed out your prompt to me, and I couldn't resist ;)<p>Written for Sandlion</p>
    </blockquote>





	Broken Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! You've seen my name before. Someone pointed out your prompt to me, and I couldn't resist ;)
> 
> Written for Sandlion

 

 

She crept through the streets of Jad, the atmosphere completely different from the way she had remembered it a year ago. Golden hair crept out from her hood, and she brushed it away in irritation; rare was the moment when it was unbound, but she had a reason for leaving it so today.

One might think she did not, however, have any reason for hiding her face again as she had the year before. Strictly speaking, she didn't. She had been a refugee on her first visit, but now, she was here for a different reason altogether.

Riesz was here to keep a promise.

A promise, and a secret. A secret she had kept for a year now, waiting for this day. A secret she had kept while she filled her obligations first, he understanding her responsibilities to her country, to her people. And he was not lacking in matters to tend to himself.

Unconsciously, she fingered the ring, as if it would have somehow disappeared on its own. A slender circlet of Rolantic silver, pure and simple, as she wanted things to be.

She tried to restrain her footsteps, but they seemed to move of their own free will, speeding up when she saw the inn approaching.

The place they had first met.

She paused at the door, discovering that her heart was beating and there were butterflies in her stomach. Suddenly, she was overtaken by inexplicable nervousness, and as she stretched her hand towards the doorknob, she found her hand shaking.

Why was she acting like this? she wondered. She knew she had been waiting for this for the last year, since they had said goodbye in the Holyland, first to the Fairy that had led her to her destiny, the Fairy that had helped her to regain her kingdom, her brother, her life. And then goodbye to him as well.

It was only one more step. She steeled herself, and stepped through the door.

He met her eyes as she only had barely begun to open the door, and a smile crossed his face. A few steps took him to her, and he swept her up into her arms. Strong as she was, she was still light, and he swung her around with very little effort.

"Goddess, it's good to see you, Riesz," Hawkeye said. Setting her down, he kissed her, first once, then twice, then quite thoroughly, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She had missed the feel of him holding her, tangling his fingers in her hair the way he was doing now. She felt like she couldn't get enough of him, but she reminded herself that she would have plenty of time for more.

After all, he was going to be her husband.

"Hawkeye," she sighed, settling into his chest. "I can't believe we've waited this long, and now I have you back, you can come back with me to Rolante..."

He tensed, suddenly, and she looked up to see a changed, pained expression on his face.

"I don't know if that will work..." he began.

Riesz loosened her hold on him some. "You want to go to Navarre?" she asked perplexed. "I mean, maybe for a bit, but I have a kingdom to rule..."

"Riesz..." he said in a funny tone, his hand gripping her arm. She stared at the fingers wrapped above her elbow.

And then she saw it. A ring, of shiny, tacky, yellow gold, a heavy, ornate construction that she would have never chosen. It was not the ring she had given him, the delicate silver counterpart to the one she herself wore.

Suddenly, she shoved him away from her, hard. He stumbled, but his thief's abilities let him keep his balance, and he bowed his head slightly, raising eyes to look at her. There was hurt, and regret, and though she wanted to scream and cry, something stopped her, and made her listen as he opened his mouth. She tried to tell herself it was simple regal composure, but that really wasn't it at all.

"Flamekhan didn't survive, and Jessica was left all alone," he began, hesitantly. "She was struggling..."

She didn't want to believe it, but to a cool, detached, part of her, it all made sense. And that part of her told her she had been a fool.

"We had already been more or less promised to one another, and I thought my feelings had changed when I met you, but then when I went back..." he droned on.

What had she been thinking? He was a thief of a desert nation, no suitable match for her, the queen of one of the most powerful nations in the world. And his people had conquered hers; whomever had truly been behind it, whatever the truth of the circumstances had been, there was no way her people would ever accept him.

"We said we'd keep it between us for this year..." She looked at him, someone who was a stranger. All the time they had traveled together, but even so... he was not who she had thought.

" I wanted to keep at least the smaller promise to come and meet you, even though I had married someone else," Hawkeye finished, a look of pleading in his eyes. A request for forgiveness.

And then she realized the truth. She did not love him.

Fascination, intrigue, infatuation, even simple lust... those things were all in it. But love? Without the propulsion of a common goal, the urgency of danger following at their heels... She wanted to be jealous, but she could not find the emotion. Jessica had nothing to do with it, she realized. If it hadn't been Hawkeye's childhood love, it would have been something else bringing her to the truth of things. Better she realized it now rather than later.

"Do you remember the first time you kissed me?"

He did not answer, but the faintest hint of a blush was enough. The two of them, climbing the stairs of Rolante to retake her home from their common enemy, and he suddenly filled with passion, grabbing her in his arms, and she surprised by her response.

That had been the beginning, and this was the end.

"What do they call you?" she asked abruptly.

"Huh?" Hawkeye asked.

"In Navarre. Your title."

"Um..." he scratched his head. "Not King, no one really likes that. They seem to have settled on Lord. For what it's worth."

"In that case," Riesz announced in a commanding voice, "I would be proud to receive the Lord and Lady of Navarre in the Wind Kingdom of Rolante."

Hawkeye looked shocked and confused, but then he grasped her in an embrace. Not the one with which he had greeted her, but a big, friendly hug, that was far more honest. "Thank you," he whispered to the top of her head.

"We've been through too much for anything else," she whispered back, letting herself pretend for a few moments more. But she knew her words were her real feelings.

Perhaps they wouldn't have the future she had been dreaming of, but the past they shared had turned out brighter than she had expected.

 


End file.
